WLT Perique - is it ready ?

[AppalachianPiper92]

Hello there, noob here trying my hand at whole leaf. I'm a big fan of perique and red VA blends for my pipe, but good perique has become few and far between. I heard great things about the WLT perique so I ordered a pound. I talked to someone on another forum who informed me that I will probably need to case this leaf before its blend-ready.
So my question is, is the WLT perique ready to smoke upon receiving? Or do I need to case it before either shredding or pressing?

I looked on the forums list for an answer but didn't see this discussed anywhere.

My apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.

 

[deluxestogie]

Welcome to the forum. Feel free to introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself forum, and scan through the topics in our Index of Key Forum Threads. Both are linked in the menu bar.

Perique from WLT comes the way it comes out of the barrel—quite damp. My approach is to spread out the Perique leaves on a tray. I spread as much as I plan to work with. Depending on your temp and ambient humidity, it will dry down to low case in a few hours or overnight. Then I hand shred it.

The portion that I have not spread to dry is kept in its vapor-proof bag, and sealed with a couple of clothespins. If I have leftovers in the bag, that goes into my fridge (as a precaution, since it is no longer vacuum sealed). The easiest way to manage it is to just spread and dry the whole bag of it, store that in a gallon freezer Ziploc, then shred it for each blend session.

Bob

 

[AppalachianPiper92]

Thanks for the info. I'll dry some overnight to use in a small batch. I need to look into storage techniques. I've read that the refrigerator is a safe option, as you stated. I'm curious about jarring or vacuum sealing - as those are my preferred storage options.
Looking forward to trying it

 

[tullius]

I store WLT perique vac sealed, either jarred for ready blending or in my humidor. Like Bob said, if anything, it might need a little dry down, but I think it's ready to go. I blend it straight out the pack and let the whole blend marry: it can bring drier case tobaccos into proper case for mixing the blend (for me)

 

[AppalachianPiper92]

I store WLT perique vac sealed, either jarred for ready blending or in my humidor. Like Bob said, if anything, it might need a little dry down, but I think it's ready to go. I blend it straight out the pack and let the whole blend marry: it can bring drier case tobaccos into proper case for mixing the blend (for me)

Do you wash it? It feels sandy. But I'm not 100% sure that's sand haha and again, I can't find this question when I search the forum

 

[AppalachianPiper92]

Actually found a similar thread, but no consensus on the sandy substance.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I think it's Pichia yeast, but I figure it would take a microscope and some biology knowledge to really confirm that.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Do you wash it? It feels sandy. But I'm not 100% sure that's sand haha and again, I can't find this question when I search the forum

I've never rinsed it, but it would be interesting to do so and then compare. I hope if you try it that you will let us know your findings.

 

[tullius]

Do you wash it? It feels sandy. But I'm not 100% sure that's sand haha and again, I can't find this question when I search the forum

No I never wash it, that would just rinse flavor and nicotine down the drain

Went digging through my humidor, found 6 lbs of tobacco I didn't know I had (thanks), and unsealed a bag of WLT perique. No cost to the humidor since it's raining well here.

The perique is not any more grainy than red VA, think that's just salts coming out of the leaf from the fermentation/curing process. The leaf on the right is stretched out, the other as it came out of the pack. Both smell wonderful: plum, fig, raisin, white pepper, bitter tangerine, rose hips, geranium and a hint of barnyard.

Bob's right, I'm going to have to dry this down a bit to run it through the shredder since I'm not using a knife to shred anymore. These are little bitty leaves in the pic, most of the rest in the pack are 16+ inches long


What to do with this open bag of perique? Ah, there's an open bag of virginia...

 

[deluxestogie]

The process of pressure-curing Perique disrupts the cell walls of the leaf lamina. Its juicy contents spill out, and are food for the Pichia anomala yeast. If you rinse Perique, all of that goes away, and you end up with nice, clean, brown, flavorless, low-nicotine compost.

Bob

 

[AppalachianPiper92]

Thanks for all the input. I didn't rinse, I've just dried out a bunch and have started pulling stems and prepping for blending (half will be ribbon cut and have will be pressed).